Supporting structure for electronic components



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March 31, 1959 SUPPORTINGSTRUCTURE FOR ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS Filed Jan. 10. 1955 United States Patent SUPPORTING STRUCTURE FOR ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS Hugh F. Stoddart, Newton Upper Falls, Virginia Cordingly, Somerville, and Theodore Voutselas, Arlington, Mass, assignors, by mesne assignments, to Baird- Atomic, Inc., a corporation of Massachusetts Application January 10, 1955, Serial No. 480,708

4 Claims. (Cl. 317-101) This invention relates to structures particularly useful in supporting electronic components for assembly into completed units such as computers and the like.

With many types of electronic assemblies, particularly complex assemblies such as computers and the like, an exceedingly large number of relatively simple circuits, such as, for example, flip-flop circuits, are assembled together with other circuits to form a completed computer. With such assemblies, it has been a real problem in the art to provide satisfactory, attractive and yet economical supporting structures. The reason for this is that, although such computers may employ the same basic circuits, each individual computer may have more or less circuit-sub-assemblics such as flip-flop circuits, depending upon the job it is designed to accomplish. As a result, it has usually been considered necessary to design'a supporting structure for each computer of a given type,- at least if there was any substantial variation in thenumber of circuit sub-assemblies, which not only added to the cost of the computer by reason of the large number of distinct types of supporting structures that were needed, but'also because of the time and effort necessary to make certain that each of the mechanical arrangements was satisfactory from an electrical standpoint, that is, from the standpoint of such factors as lead dress and the like as they affected inter-element capacity and induction.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a novel supporting structure for electronic components wherein many types of completed units may be readily put together by plugging the desired kind and number of standard sub-assemblies into said supporting structure. Thus, a complex computer of a desired type may be quickly and easily made up without the time and labor necessary for designing a special supporting structure.

It is a feature of the supporting structure of the invention that it is of relatively simple and economical construction and yet of attractive appearance.

For the purpose of explaining further objects and features of the invention, reference is made to the following specification describing a preferred embodiment thereof, taken together with the accompanying drawing wherein is shown a partly exploded isometric view of the supporting structure of the invention.

Referring to the drawing, the supporting structure for electronic components according to the present invention includes a pair of substantially U-shaped sheet metal side plates positioned in opposed relation to one another with their webs 12 parallel to one another and their flanges 14 extending toward one another. On the inner surfaces of said flanges 14 are mounted four pairs of connecting members which extend between said flanges of the opposed side plates, said pairs of members including a front pair of connecting members 16 attached to the front corners of the side plates, two intermediate pairs of connecting members spaced rearwardly thereof,

2 front intermediate connecting members 18 and rear intermediate connecting members 20, and a rear pair of connecting members 22 attached to the rear corners of the side plates.

Each of said connecting members is of square cross section and is attached to the inner surfaces of opposed flanges 14 by pairs of screws 24 which pass through holes in said flanges and into tapped holes in the top and bottom surfaces of each of said connecting members, so that the connecting members and side plates together form a rigid and secure structure. Preferably, the spacing between the side plates is about 17" such that the said structure will fit within a standard 19" rack, and may be mounted therein by brackets (not shown) attached to the webs 12 of said side plates as known in the art, the vertical spacing between the upper and lower edges of front connecting members 16 being about 5" in such case.

Each of the connecting members 16 and 18, and preferably connecting members 20 and 22 as well are provided in their front and rear surfaces with a plurality of tapped holes 26, said holes being spaced at predetermined distances from the side plate webs 12 as well as from one another to provide for the mounting thereon of elements,

such as, for example, a power supply unit 28 herein,

shown as mounted on the rear intermediate and rear. pairs of connecting members 20 and 22 respectively, as well as for the mounting of sub-assemblies having panels of a uniform size as hereinafter more fully explained.

A plurality of sub-frame structures are mounted on,

the front pair of supporting members 16, each of such,

structures including a rectangular front panel 30 which extends between the front connecting members 16 and, is positioned with its rear face in contact with the front.

Thus, each of the panels 30 is of a predetermined size so that a plurality of such panels may be attached by screws 34 to the front pair of connecting members to provide a neat and uniform appearance wherein the connecting members are concealed and the individual panels 30 are in substantially abutting relationship.

Each of the sub-frame panels 30 is provided with a mounting member 36 adjacent each of its four corners, which member extends rearwardly thereof perpendicular thereto. The mounting members 36 are mounted on the rear surface of panels 30 by screws 38, and are positioned between the front pair of connecting members 16, inwardly of the upper and lower edges of said first pair of connecting members 16 by a distance substantially equal to the vertical thickness of said members. A sub frame rear panel 40 is mounted on the rear ends of said connecting members by suitable screws, such panel being of a dimension no greater than the distances between the inner edges of the connecting members 16 so that the entire sub-frame assembly can be readily removed. A multi-contact plug element 42 is mounted on said rear panel 40 with its plug elements extending rearwardly from the rear face of said panel.

A second series of rear panels 44 are provided mounted on the front intermediate pair of connecting members 18, such panels each having mounted thereon a multi-contact plug element 46 adapted for engagement with the sub-frame plug element 42 when the sub-frame assembly is in assembled position. Each of the said rear aeaoeee panels 44 is attached to the front intermediate pair of supporting members by screws 48 at each of the four corners thereof, said panels being of a predetermined .size with said holes at a predetermined distance from one another so that said screws will engage with the tapped holes 26 in said front intermediate connecting members 18.

The sub-frame assemblies are arranged so that various types of electronic components may readily be mounted therein and wire to multi-contact plug 42 to provide desired circuits. For example, as with the sub-frame assembly shown in exploded view in the drawing, a chassis 5i may be suitably mounted on mounting members for retaining tubes, such as a counting tube 52, the face of which may be made visible by a suitable cut-out in panel 30. For mounting other types of components, a terminal board 54 may be mounted on such a sub-frame assembly as by standoffs 56. Thus, various types of subframe assemblies may readily be provided, so that they need only to be plugged in and a suitable power supply 28 be wired to multi-contact plugs 46 to provide a completed unit. If more sub-frames are needed than can be accommodated in a single supporting structure, additional structures can be interconnected as desired, and they can be stacked on one another, or otherwise mounted as desired.

It will be apparent to those skilled in this art that various modifications may be made within the spirit of the invention and the scope of the appended claims.

We claim:

1. A supporting structure for electronic components comprising a pair of substantially U-shaped sheet metal side plates positioned in opposed relation to one another with their flange portions extending toward one another, first and second pairs of connecting members extending between said side plates, each of said connecting members being of rectangular cross section and having in its front surface a plurality of tapped holes spaced from one another at predetermined distances, said pairs of connecting members being attached to the inner surfaces of the flanges of said side plates, respectively, at the front corners, and at a position spaced rearwardly therefrom, a plurality of sub-frame structures each including a rectangular front panel extending between said first pair of connecting members and positioned against the front surfaces thereof, said panel having holes therein positioned over said tapped holes in said first connecting members, a plurality of mounting members extending rearwardly from said front panel and positioned between said first connecting members, a subframe rear panel mounted on the rearward end ofsaid mounting members and sub-frame plug means mounted on said sub-frame rear panel and extending rearwardly thereof, screw fastening means passing through said holes in said front panels and engaging said tapped holes in said first connecting members, a plurality of rear panels extending between said second pair of connecting members, said panels having holes therein positioned over said tapped holes in said second pair of connecting members, plug means mounted on said rear panels extending forwardly thereof for engagement with said subframes, plug means and screw fastening means passing through holes in said rectangular rear panels andengaging said tapped holes in said connecting members.

2. A supporting structure for electronic components as claimed in claim 1 wherein four mounting members are mounted on said front panel adjacent the corners thereof, and electronic component mounting means are provided mounted on said mounting members.

3. A supporting structure for electronic components as claimed in claim 2 further including a third pair of connecting members attached to the inner surfaces of the flanges of said side plates at the rear corners thereof, said second pair of connecting members being positioned between said first and third pairs thereof.

4. A supporting structure for electronic components :as claimed in claim 3, further including a fourth pair of connecting members attached to the inner surfaces of the flanges of said side plates, said fourth pair of connecting members being positioned between said second and third pairs thereof.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,955,287 Graves Apr. 17, 1934 2,077,160 Wilson Apr. 13, 1937 2,488,372 Breisch Nov. '15,.1949 2,602,842 Morris July 8, 1952 2,648,032 Mekelburg Aug. 4, 1953 2,691,724 Hoffman .Oct. 12, 1954 

